AT LEAST 54 people have been killed in an air strike on a local market in western Sudan, aid groups said on Tuesday.
The strike against the village of Tora on Monday caused a huge fire, according to Adam Rejal, a spokesman for the General Co-ordination, a local group helping displaced people in Darfur.
Sudanese military spokesman Brigadier General Nabil Abdullah said civilians had not been targeted, adding the allegations were “incorrect” and “are raised whenever our forces exercise their constitutional and legal right to deal with hostile targets.”
The strike tore apart a large part of the weekly market in Tora, which is located 50 miles north of el-Fasher, the capital city of North Darfur province.
Support Darfur Victims, a local group that provides support to victims of the Darfur conflict, shared graphic video footage appearing to show burnt structures and charred bodies on the ground.
More than half of the dead were women, according to a list of casualties provided by Rejal. At least 23 people were wounded and seven were missing, the list showed.
Rejal said that the strike was “a crime against humanity and a clear violation of all international and humanitarian laws and conventions.”
El-Fasher is held by the Sudanese military despite near-daily strikes by its powerful rival, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group.
Monday’s strike was the latest deadly attack in a war that started in April 2023 when simmering tensions between the military and the RSF exploded into open warfare across the country.
The war has killed more than 28,000 people and displaced millions as famine sweeps parts of the country.
Both sides have been accused of war crimes by the United Nations and international rights groups.
Earlier this month the military regained control of most of the strategic and government buildings in the capital, including the Republican Palace – the seat of the pre-war government.